Frank Garvin Yerby
(September 5, 1916 — November
29, 1991)
Mr. Yerby, historical novelist, short story writer, and poet, graduated from Augusta's Paine College, received a master's degree from Fisk University and taught at Florida A&M in Tallahassee and Southern University in Baton Rouge, La. His story, Health Card, won the O. Henry Memorial Award for the best first published short story in 1944.
Mr. Yerby later would say it was racial discrimination growing up in Augusta that caused his self-imposed exile in Madrid, Spain, where he lived from 1955 until his death on Nov. 29, 1991.
Yerby is best known as the first African-American writer to become a millionaire from his pen, and to have a book purchased by a Hollywood studio for a film adaptation. Yerby has published more than 30 novels, which has sold more than 55 million copies. Several including The Foxes of Harrow (1946), The Golden Hawk (1948), The Saracen Blade (1952) were turned into successful movies.
Portions of the above excerpted from The Oxford Companion to African American Literature.
Click here to learn even more about Frank Yerby and his remarkable accomplishments.
The Dahomean
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Paperback
Publisher: Dell Publishing (August 1980)
ISBN-10: 0440117259
ISBN-13: 978-0440117254
Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
His best work may be his novel
The
Golden Hawk
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Hardcover
Publisher: Dial Press (1951)
Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1.4 inches
From the Back Cover
As a young boy Kit Gerado had seen his mother murdered by the arrogant Don
Luis del Toro. Now, as a buccaneer captain, he longed to meet his enemy and duel
with him to the death. But Don Luis was governor of Cartagena, protected by the
mightiest fortress in the Caribbean.
Kit and his pirates roamed the West Indies finding both adventure and love.
There was man-hating Rough of the taunting eyes, her self a desperate buccaneer.
And Lady Rosalind Parish, who had the ways of a wanton. The great Spanish
galleons yielded their golden treasures. Bianca, the beautiful wife of Don Luis,
melted with love in Kit's arms. And finally this proud and vengeful pirate came
face to face, knife to knife, with the man he had sworn to kill!
Benton's Row
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Paperback
Publisher: Dell Publishing (March 1, 1977)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0440105129
ISBN-13: 978-0440105121
Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
The Foxes of Harrow
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Hardcover
Publisher: Buccaneer Books (June 1976)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0899662102
ISBN-13: 978-0899662107
The Saracen Blade
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Hardcover
Publisher: Buccaneer Books (September 1985)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0899662161
ISBN-13: 978-0899662169
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
The Vixens
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Hardcover: 844 pages
Publisher: Ulverscroft Large Print Books; Lrg edition (June 1983)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0708906281
ISBN-13: 978-0708906286
Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.5 x 1.5 inches
A Woman Called Fancy
Frank Yerby: A Victim’s Guilt
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Paperback: 462 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (March 18, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1451524242
ISBN-13: 978-1451524246
Product Dimensions: 0.6 x 0.8 x 0.1 inches
2007 IPPY Bronze Medal winner (Multicultural Fiction Adult)
Frank Yerby, an African American novelist, gave the world a body of
literature that inspired and thrilled millions of readers. A brilliant story
teller and intellectual giant, it is estimated that Yerby at the time of his
death in 1991 had sold more books than all other African American novelists
combined. With the publication of his twenty-fifth novel, A Voyage
Unplanned, Yerby had sold over 55 million books in eighty-two countries and
in twenty-three languages. In all Yerby wrote thirty-three novels, including
four that were made into Hollywood movies. Yet, he is virtually unknown to
most Black Americans.
In his novel Frank Yerby: A Victim’s Guilt, Eugene Stovall brings Frank
Yerby and his characters come back to life. Determined not to be forgotten,
Yerby’s characters impose themselves upon Yerby and upon history. And the
reader is never quite certain if it is fact, fiction … or a separate
reality.
In this unique work, Stovall explores the concept of guilt… one of Frank
Yerby’s notions … from the standpoint of history… only to discover that
some important historical facts accepted today have been distorted. And
Stovall begins to reveal secrets that have been hidden away for years.
Related Links
Frank Yerby Renaissance Project
Yerby is captured in this anthology: The African American West: A Century of Short Stories
Bruce A. Glasrud and Laurie Champion have compiled a book of short stories written by African American authors and all on the subject of the American West. This remarkable volume includes the work of Rita Dove, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Terry McMillan, Walter Mosley, Mike Thelwell, John A. Williams, Frank Yerby and many others!
